The Shapeshifter
by Misty7books
Summary: Harry's always wished that someone would appear and take him away from the Dursleys, but he definitely wasn't expecting a shapeshifting auntie to whisk him away and raise him with the help from the Blacks and one Remus Lupin. OC/Remus. Tell me who you want Harry to end up with.
1. Aurora Rose Slytherin

**Chapter 1:** **(2870 words)**

He couldn't believe it. Of all days to be locked outside by the Dursleys, it had to be his fifth birthday? 'Of course it did... it's the Dursleys,' Harry thought, as if that solved the entire question.

Little Harry Potter of Number Four Privet Drive sighed as he slid down the painfully bumpy brick wall, though it wasn't like Harry had never felt pain at all before. He had mostly given up on the silly little dream by then, but still, a part of him hungered for someone to appear at the door and state that they would take Harry in and whisk him away from this dreadful place, to somewhere else, where he'd be treated like a person and an equal. Still, he was five; he was smart enough to know that it was incredibly unlikely that such a miracle would happen.

Lost in his own thoughts, he lost track of time, until he snapped out of it and saw the blue-black of the night sky, and the waxing moon almost reach half-way to 'full moon status'. It must have been at least two or three in the morning, with the position of the moon telling him all he needed to know.

It was at that point when he heard something rustling further up the street.

Worried that it might be a dangerous animal of some sort, Harry stood quickly yet silently and creeped towards the shed, hoping to hide behind it and give himself a chance at survival. Of course, there may not be any need for him to hide at all, but it was better to be safe than to be sorry.

He peeked around the side of the shed and looked at the sidewalk. If anything was there, he'd see it. A few seconds later, a fox appeared, sniffing at the ground and in the air as if in search for something.

It seemed to be of average size, perhaps slightly sleeker and longer than most. It had a general black colouring, with the tips of the ears, legs, and tail being a bright silver. The eyes, however, were what drew Harry's own to them, they were a bright, enchanting green that brought long lost memories of a happier and sadder time, back when he was just a baby. They also reminded him of his own eyes... in fact, they seemed to be the exact same shade. How peculiar.

The fox lifted its head and began looking around the neighbourhood. Its eyes began searching through the front garden of Number Four, and Harry, too enchanted by such familiar eyes, was transfixed in his spot. Once the eyes reached Harry, the fox stopped its search.

Lifting a tentative paw, the fox slowly made its way across the front garden of Number Four, to where Harry was standing. When it was about one or two metres away from the young child, it gestured its head, as if to tell him, _'Come out from your hiding place.'_

Harry reluctantly did so.

Once Harry was standing out in the open, the fox suddenly transformed into a young woman, perhaps in her early to mid-twenties. She had extremely curly hair, but it seemed somewhat tamed and in delicate curls that reached to about half-way down her thighs. Her eyes, exactly like the fox', were a bright emerald green. Her pale skin and rather aristocratic face resembled Harry's, remarkably so.

Harry was astonished into silence, unsure if he had just imagined the mysterious fox turn into the lady in front of him. A few seconds later, he remembered his manners and flushed embarrassedly. The Dursleys might not have any manners, but he certainly did, "Good evening, miss."

The woman gave him a small smile, "Hello, Harry."

Harry stood stiff, in surprise at the fact that this woman somehow knew his name, "You know my name?"

"Oh, Harry," she gave him a loving smile, "Of course I do, I'm your aunt. Your real aunt, I mean, not that horse of a woman."

Harry couldn't help but snort at that comment, but then he stopped to think about what she said, "What do you mean, my 'real' aunt?"

The woman crouched down so that she was sitting on her knees, "Well, Harry. What I mean to say is that your mother, Lily Evans, wasn't actually an Evans by blood. She was adopted by them. She was my twin sister, actually, but we got separated at a very young age. Lily found a family in the Evans (excluding Petunia), while I found refuge within the Black family. They are a very... Dark family and are generally disliked by most others. Still, they are extremely influential as they are a pureblood family, that means that all of them have many magical grandparents, almost every single one."

Harry nodded as he was being told this, absorbing this new information about his family like a sponge. He didn't even question about the existence of magic, having seen a fox turn into a woman. His true aunt continued to explain, "Someone with three or four magical grandparents is a pureblood and have the most political power. Someone with one or two magical grandparents is a half-blood, and they're generally ignored by most. Then those with no magical grandparents, or parents for that matter, are called muggleborns, since someone with no magic is called a muggle. Most purebloods believe them to have stolen magic and are unworthy of wielding it. Luckily, I didn't, and neither did the other Blacks my age, though it was all very secret. Your blood status doesn't affect your magical power at all, by the way, only your political power.

"Anyways, when they found me, they didn't know if I was a pureblood or not, as the potion to test for that is harmful to young people, so they never put too much effort into raising me until they knew if I was 'worth it'. Luckily, the other Blacks around my age, like I said, didn't care for that, and taught me everything they were taught that was of use to us. I admit, it was very fun.

"And then, I got my Hogwarts letter on my eleventh birthday. Hogwarts is the school of magic where every wizard and witch in the UK is taught magic. It's one of the best schools in the world, in fact. At least, it was when my adoptive parents were your age. It's gotten a whole lot worse with Albus Dumbledore as headmaster. Still, I was so excited! And my adoptive parents, Orion and Walburga Black, were able to give me the potion to check my blood status. Turns out that its pureblood," she grinned. "So, since your father was a pureblood, and your mother was a pureblood, since she's my twin, you are officially a pureblood."

Harry shrugged, "I suppose I don't really care about that, but it could come in handy."

His aunt nodded in approval, "Good. I'm glad you think that way. Everyone has no idea that me and Lily were twins though, so everyone will believe you to be a half-blood. In Hogwarts, you are sorted into one of four houses, which will be like family in the time that you are at Hogwarts, which is seven years. Gryffindor's colours are red and gold, it's animal is a lion, and it values bravery, courage, and determination. Those that dislike it state that it is a house filled with reckless idiots. Hufflepuff's colours are yellow and black, its animal is a badger, and it values loyalty and hard-working people. Those that dislike this house always say that it's a house of weak cry-babies. Ravenclaw's colours are blue and bronze, its animal is, oddly enough, an eagle instead of a raven, and this house values intelligence and a hunger to learn. Those who dislike this one always say that it is a house of narrow-minded people who have absolutely no social skills. And finally, Slytherin's colours are green and silver, it's animal is a snake, and it values ambition, cunning, and, like Gryffindor, determination. Those that dislike this house, and there's sadly a lot of them, say that this house is filled with Death Eaters, the followers of Voldemort, the Dark wizard who took the lives of your parents while they were protecting you."

His eyes widening, Harry gaped at the woman before him, "You mean they didn't get killed in a car crash because my dad was a crazy drunk?" Seeing the furious glint in her eyes, Harry added, "That's what Aunt Petunia always said."

She nodded, "The story is quite long. I'll explain it in a while, Harry. Now, where were we?"

"The four Hogwarts houses," Harry helpfully told her.

"Oh, right," she smiled at her nephew. "Slytherin and Gryffindor have always been rivals, so it was rather ironic that my sister, your mother, was placed into Gryffindor along with your father and one of my Black relatives, while I was placed into Slytherin, along with all of the other Blacks currently at Hogwarts other than the one placed into Gryffindor. We were raised like brother and sister, since his mother and father were the ones that adopted me. He stopped talking to me after were sorted into the 'opposite' houses. Still, I quickly became best friends with your mother and her friend, Severus Snape, who was in Slytherin as well.

"It was only first year when your father declared your mother the person he was going to marry..." she grinned, "He was pretty arrogant back then, sorry. I don't think you'd like him much back then, if I think the Dursleys have been as harsh as I think they have." Harry flushed and nodded shamefully. The woman gave him a loving smile, and patted his shoulder, before continuing with the story, pretty sure that Harry would find the silence even more uncomfortable. "Anyways, your mother thought the same thing I did, and spent most of her time with me and Severus. Meanwhile, your father became quick best friends with my Black relative that became a Gryffindor, Sirius. He also became friends with a werewolf named Remus Lupin," she blushed just slightly at that point, and Harry decided to question her about it later. "Oh, he also befriended a boy named Peter Pettigrew.

"Over the next few years, the Marauders (the name your father gave to his little quartet of friends) played pranks, mostly on Severus, since he was a 'slimy snake' and James was jealous that Lily was spending all of her time with Severus and I. Anyways, in Fifth Year, they antagonised him so much that when Lily tried to help, he lashed out at her, and she broke their friendship. Luckily, I got them to make up by the end of the school year, much to James' dismay. And by that point next year, he finally (finally!) understood that the kind of person he was being was wrong, and he came back in Seventh Year a practically different person.

"And it turned out that your mother liked the changes," his aunt wiggled her eyebrows, and Harry blushed and rolled his eyes. "I still wasn't friends with Sirius by then, and the other Blacks were mostly all marked by Voldemort by then, except for Andromeda and Narcissa. They were sisters, they're younger sister Bellatrix did get marked though. She was very upset about it, since once you've got the mark, there's no magic or muggle invention in the world that can get rid of it, though she changed her mind after a while." She sighed, "Narcissa's fiancé, Lucius Malfoy, was marked as well, as was Bellatrix' fiancé, Rodolphus Lestrange. Andromeda ran away and married a muggleborn named Ted Tonks and was disowned for married such 'dirty blood'. Anyways, once they were out of school, Lily and James got married, with Sirius as best man and Alice Longbottom as maid of honour. Me and Lily had discovered that we were twins by then and tried to distance ourselves so that no one would figure it out. I still attended the wedding though... it was beautiful."

Harry gave her a little smile, "I'm glad that they at least had a nice day before everything went down the drain."

His aunt nodded solemnly, "Me too, Harry. Me too. You were born when we were all eighteen. That means that I'm twenty-three right now. My birthday was a few days ago, actually; on the twenty fourth of July. So Happy Birthday to both of us. Sirius and Alice were named your godparents, with me as your secret godmother and Severus as your secret godfather. The Marauders would have never allowed for Severus or I to be your godparents, it was hard enough for them to be around him, and they hardly even met me, but they did their best for Lily. Her temper's just as bad as mine, possibly even worse, though I didn't believe it possible until I witnessed it for myself.

"All of my Gryffindor friends joined the Order of the Phoenix, a vigilante group that fights against the Dark Lord that was created by Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and a very powerful man, magically and politically. Be careful around him if you ever come across him in the future, he's a master manipulator, and has been in power for so long that he sees everyone and everything around him as a chess piece. Anyways, a prophecy was told about the defeater of Voldemort approaching, and everyone believed that it would be you. Severus had no choice but to tell the Dark Lord about the prophecy, as he can... well, the simple way to put it is that he can read minds. It's hard to explain, I'll get to that later. Anyways, the Dark Lord Voldemort was actively hunting you and your parents down, since he believed that if he killed you while you were young, you wouldn't be able to fight back or gain the power that would eventually come to kill him."

Nodding throughout the whole thing, Harry listened with all ears wide open, wanting to know the true story of his life. His aunt continued, "Your parents were offered by Dumbledore to go into hiding, and he'd preform this charm where only one person can tell other people where something is, no matter what. So, if you knew, you couldn't tell anyone else unless you were this Secret Keeper.

"In short, everyone believed that the Potters would choose Sirius, since he was James' best friend. They didn't really trust Remus all that much during those times since werewolves were believed to be Dark creatures, and I was his only friend really, along with the other Blacks, Lily, and the Longbottoms in the background, so they couldn't choose him. To keep it safer, they chose Peter. Unknown to them, though, he bore the dark mark of Lord Voldemort."

Harry gaped, "What! My parents were betrayed b-by their... their friend?! What kind of person _is_ this Peter?! Where's h-his honour, honestly?! I thought he was a Gryffindor!"

His aunt smirked at his reaction, and shook her head fondly, "My dear Harry, I believe I had the very same reaction as you when I found out. Anyways, back to the story. Peter rushed to the Dark Lord and told him the location of the only one who could defeat him. He rushed to your house in Godric's Hollow and murdered your father, who fought valiantly to save the life of his beloved wife and son. Next, he killed your mother, sweet Lily, and just because she wouldn't stand aside and let Voldemort kill you..."

Harry patted his aunt, his closest relative, on the arm, "It's alright, Auntie. Everything's fine now, see?"

She let out a self-depreciating giggle, "I suppose so. Anyways, he approached you, and shot the curse of Death - though everyone calls it the killing curse, or the Avada Kedavra curse - at you, but your mother died to protect you, she made a blood sacrifice, which, I have to say, is pretty illegal, and awesome, and the killing curse bounced off you and onto the Dark Lord.

"Since no one knew that Peter was the true Secret Keeper, Sirius was sent to Azkaban, the Wizarding prison, without a trial, for indirectly causing the murder of his friends. Remus is Merlin-knows-where, and Peter is out there, hiding like the coward he is, waiting for his master to come back, because although the entirety of the Wizarding World thinks otherwise, Voldemort is still alive, and will be coming back to... 'finish the job'. Still, you are incredibly famous and regarded as the Saviour of Light. I won't hold that against you though, you can be whatever you want to be, sweetie."

Harry smiled, his eyes that looked so much like hers and Lily's were burning bright with hope, "Thanks, Auntie- wait, I just realised, I don't know your name!"

"Oh," the woman grinned sheepishly, still slightly miserable looking from the previous topic of her sister and her brother-in-law's deaths, but willingly took the topic-change and grabbed it with both hands, "right. My name is Aurora Black. Or, well, I should say Aurora Rose Slytherin."

 **A/N: Hi, everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't been posting these past two months, but Word on my laptop stopped working properly so I've been writing everything on Notepad. Luckily it's working again! Yay! So look out for more updates and new stories. :D**

 **Anyways, I hope you all had a Happy Holiday and New Year. :)**

 **Again, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post for so long, but here you go, a new story as a present. Forgive me? :'(**

 **Enjoy!**


	2. House Elves Deserve Kindness Too

**Chapter 2:** **(1866 words)**

"Well," Harry gave her an adorable little smile, oh how she missed her most wonderous nephew. It wasn't like she saw much of him when he was a baby, but he was absolutely adorable when she did get the chance to sneak in and see the child, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Auntie 'Rora."

She grinned at her new nickname; Lily had always called her 'Rosey', and practically everyone else called her 'Thorn' or something along those lines. She might be as kind and caring as a Hufflepuff but damnit could she get ferocious real quick. Being the proper pureblood that she was (despite not truly caring about such things), Aurora stood up and helped her little nephew up too. She then proceeded to show him how to stand correctly and how to properly greet someone.

He didn't seem to mind the constructive criticism - if anything, he seemed to get happier every time he heard some. Were the Dursleys truly treating him that bad? If so, she needed to do something.

She wasn't sure what she was doing in that street. As she sensed no magic at all nearby, she judged it to be a muggle street and promptly transformed into a fox. It was so incredibly rare that it was practically unheard of, but she was a shapeshifter. Lily was rather unlucky in that aspect and wasn't, though there was the extremely unlikely off chance that she passed it onto little Harry here. Perhaps that was the power that the Dark Lord knew not? It was possible, she supposed. She just trotted down the street and had just been wondering why she had even bothered to come through this way in the middle of the night when she caught a glance of the last family member that she could truly declare herself related to.

"Harry?" she began, tentatively. Maybe Harry didn't see her as someone he could go and live with...

"Yes, Auntie?"

"Umm... well, you see... I was wondering if you'd like to not live here anymore. Sirius declared you the next Black Heir, so you might as well be raised where me, Sirius, and Regulus, his younger brother, were raised, right? I _will_ have to explain things to Walburga's Portrait first though, before she starts screaming bloody murder," she mumbled the last part to herself, though Harry heard anyways. He didn't really understand what she meant by the portrait of the woman who raised her and was the mother of the other two Blacks.

"I'd love to come and live with you, Auntie 'Rora," he gave her one last smile, and she nodded before picking him up. She said nothing on how light he was, deciding that she'd merely express her opinion on that when she fried the Dursleys alive. Maybe she should make a truce with Voldemort and have some help? That would be fun.

Now that she thought about it some more, she couldn't help but be taken by the idea: she and Harry would be safe, and Voldemort would take the chance of the only thing that could defeat him on his side with open arms.

She could also see all of her 'relatives' again, they were all firmly in the Dark, after all. And Severus was like a brother to her anyways. She knew he was on the Dark side as well, despite working for Dumbledore. He only did that to try and save Lily's life, and she didn't blame him. All of these people thought she was likely dead, as she had practically disappeared off the face of the Earth the second after her graduation. Only Lily and Remus knew she was alive, and no one knew her location, which actually changed from Slytherin Castle to Number 12 Grimmauld Place every few days.

She looked at him and warned him, "This is called apparation, it's basically a cooler word for teleporting. It makes you feel a bit nauseous once you arrive, but it goes away straight after, so, y'know, just a warning."

"Alright, Auntie 'Rora," Harry nodded to give her the okay.

She apparated to Slytherin Castle, and it was very appropriately named in her opinion: it was massive! Aurora put her beloved nephew down and they held hands as they walked up to the beautiful black gates and fence, which were three times taller than her. The gates hissed though both aunt and nephew understood every word, **"Good Evening, Lady and Heir Slytherin."**

Aurora's smile widened as Harry jumped, it seems he's a Parselmouth like she suspected he'd be. She turned to the gates, **"Good Evening, Slytherin Castle. I request access and a change of the wards, if you will."**

" **And what shall that be, Lady Slytherin?"** the gates responded in the same hissing voice.

" **I wish for my nephew, Heir Harry of the Noble and Most Ancient house of Slytherin, to be allowed access to Slytherin Castle at all times. He was born with the sacred language of snakes in his blood and will be able to speak to you,"** she returned, and Harry's eyes widened: the sacred language of snakes?

" **Your request has been granted, Lady Slytherin,"** the gate spoke one last time and then slowly open, not one creak from it, showing how the castle has been treated properly these past few years.

"Harry, I know this is a bit sudden, but since your mother was my twin and knew Parseltongue, which is the language of snakes, you were born with it too," she told him.

Harry nodded excitedly, "Are there any other languages that aren't found in the non-magical part of the world?"

Aurora smiled, "First of all, Harry sweetie, the word for non-magical is muggle. Second of all, yes, there are many different languages in the magical world, the most common being Gobbledygook, the language of goblins, and Mermish, the language of the mermaids. However, there's a lot more languages, such as Nymph, Fairy, Elfish, and many more, including Parseltongue."

"Wow," Harry whispered, amazed.

Nodding, Aurora continued with a smile gracing her features, "Yes, it is rather amazing. Anyways, there are creatures that serve wizard kind. Most muggles would see it as slavery, but it is not, it is just the way our culture works. House elves serve happily and in return we give them some of our magic, since theirs is too unstable, so if they don't have a master to serve, they die within the week due to, most likely, an explosion caused by their magic."

Harry's eyes widened, "Really? Well, I guess it's understandable if you put it that way."

They reached the front door of the castle, and wow was it massive. The walls were made of ancient looking stone that almost glowed in the moonlight, and the castle was absolutely massive, easily fitting in hundreds of people inside. "Well, I shall introduce you to some of the house elves, there's rather a lot of them, you see."

Slowly nodding in understanding, Harry followed his saviour into the castle, his new home. When they walked in and the massive doors closed, four little beings popped right in front of them. Harry would have jumped in shock had his aunt not warned him. One of them walked forward, looking wrinkly and having large, bat-like ears, with a male sounding voice, "Mistress Slytherin. We have sensed a different magic to yours and recognised our most wonderous Heir."

Aurora nodded happily. She despised how wizards didn't take the time to grow bonds between their house elves. If they showed them respect, then they will happily follow your every command with joy. She also took the time to teach them how to speak properly, and they taught their children, making it rather easy for her. "Yes, Nippy, this is my young nephew, Harry James Potter, though I'm hoping he is agreeable in adding a few more surnames to that. He is your Heir and could you please treat him with respect, he means a great deal to me."

The four elves nodded, and another one stepped forward, a female this time "Would you like for me to make a small snack for your young Heir, Mistress?"

The Lady of the castle looked at her nephew, who looked surprised and overjoyed at the mentioning of food, and she nodded, "Thank you, Callie. Just a small one, we must be getting to bed soon."

The elf named Callie nodded and popped away, with the one named Nippy soon doing the same. The other two elves walked forward, "Mistress, would you like for us to prepare a room for the young Heir?"

She nodded to the female elf, "That would be most wonderful, Flonna. Could it be done with blacks and dark blues, with touches of green and red, please?"

Flonna nodded and popped away like the previous two elves. The final elf stepped up, it seemed smaller than the other three, perhaps younger. It had a male voice, from what Harry could hear anyway, and spoke shyly to his auntie, "Mistress, may I be the Heir's personal elf?"

Aurora smiled kindly towards the elf, and nodded, "That would be fantastic, Slithy. I wish you the best of luck at your first job. Do keep an eye out towards Harry, would you? I have a feeling that he'll be exploring quite a lot the following few days. I don't want him getting lost." The elf nodded like a man on a mission and popped away. Aurora then turned to Harry, "You just need to call his name and he will appear before you. If you need anything, and I mean absolutely anything, then call him. If you need me, call and ask him to take you to me."

Harry nodded with tears in his eyes, "Thank you, Auntie 'Rora. No one's ever done this for me before."

She nodded kindly, "You're most welcome, sweetie. I'll get back to you on the name change thing tomorrow, we need to go and meet some portraits. See, they're kind of alive in the magical world. I'll explain later tomorrow. Come now, we need sleep."

Nodded, Harry let out a large yawn, "Yes, auntie. Can I eat first, though?" He froze, as he dared to ask a question, but blinked, surprised, when his new relative nodded kindly.

"Yes, of course Harry. Off you go, the kitchen is down there. The snack should already be ready. Once you have finished, call Slithy and ask him to take you to your new bedroom, it should be done by now, and it should be right next to mine. I'll give you a tour tomorrow. Good night, sweetie, I'm exhausted!"

Harry giggled tiredly, "Yes, good night, Auntie 'Rora." She then transformed into a large falcon-looking bird, with white feathers with black spots on her wings, and she promptly flew away and up the stairs. Harry just stood there for a moment, wondering how his auntie was so weird and awesome at the same time, before heading to the kitchen, down the corridor his auntie said it would be in.

He wasn't sure what he's just walked into, but he had a feeling that it definitely wouldn't be boring, that's for sure.

 **A/N: Ta da! Next chapter's finished for you all, so here you go. :)**

 **I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything these past three weeks or more, a lot of things have been going on and I haven't had the time to write, but I had mostly finished this before everything happened, so I wrote the last bit and posted it. I hope this makes up for my absence…?**

 **I really have nothing else to say, so have a nice day, all of you! I have a couple of ideas but I need to weave them all together which is working to be tricky, so I don't know how long the next chapter's going to take.**

 **Enjoy!**


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